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Niernen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 1, 2012
4
0
Canada, BC
I renamed my home folder while attempting to change the account/home folder short name using terminal. Now I don't know how to recover it.

I was using this guide https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3872 and didn't read it fully before doing steps 1-3. I did the terminal commands, then changed my mind and quit terminal (foolish, I know). The result was my old home folder (with all my files etc.) "Luc" was renamed to "Lucas". Both folders are at /Users/, but my system is using a new folder it created (named Luc), when the old home folder was renamed, as the current home folder and is reading off the files there. All my files are in my old folder "Lucas", but because the name is changed it isn't using the files there. I have both home folders, my Mac is simply reading off the new, and wrong, one now.

Is there a way to revert the "sudo mv" command that I used, or a way to change back the name? Or make my Mac read off of "Lucas" and not "Luc"? The exact command I used was "sudo mv luc lucas".

Would following through steps 4-10 on the guide fix it?

At the moment I'm able to use some of my apps from my old folder. The change only seemed to reset things like mail, itunes, system prefs, caches, etc. I'm able to use things like chrome with the previous settings, though not saved passwords and stuff. Also able to run games from there. It seems to be using settings from the new home folder, but I've retained wallpaper/dock/some apps of my old home folder, until I restart.

I believe http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/renamehomerecovery.html is my exact problem, but I don't know if the solution there would work because it seems to be fairly old. I'm afraid if I do anything I'm unsure of right now I'll mess this up even more.

Any help would be appreciated, pretty much wiped my account back to default :(

Using Mac OS X 10.6.8, MacBook mid-2010 model.
 
Last edited:

Niernen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 1, 2012
4
0
Canada, BC
This is the official knowledgebase article on changing home folder names.

I don't know with which release the feature was included, but inside Users & Groups there is an Advanced Options... feature available by right-clicking on an account in the side-pane. These options allow you to manually specify where an account's home directory is located among other advanced attributes

That fixed it, simple as that. Thanks so much :). Didn't realize there was a right click option on there, simply chose the old renamed home folder, restarted, and voila. Don't know how that never came up when I was scouring google for solutions :p Thanks again.
 
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